Richard L. Snider (1953-2009)

In November this year, it will have been 10 years since Richard Leonard Snider (August 29, 1953 - November 17, 2009) passed away. I reported on his passing in this post from 2009. Today I want to take the time to look into Richard's importance for our hobby.

Perhaps best known for designing Tabletop RPGs such as Powers & Perils (Avalon Hill) and Adventures in Fantasy (1978), Richard was an important member of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Group and went onto become a game designer himself. Richard was also a supporter of the Blackmoor fan community and participated at the Wayfarer's Inn, a precedessor of the Comeback Inn Blackmoor Forum.

Meeting Dave Arneson

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Richard and his brother John moved to Minnesota and joined the gaming club known as the Midwest Military Simulation Association, where Dave Arneson was also a member. In the 1970s and the Sniders became two of the original Blackmoor players in Dave's campaign. The First Fantasy Campaigns makes many references to "The Sniders" detailing the actions of the two brothers in Dave Arneson's Campaign. Richard most memorable character was probably the Cleric who became known as the Flying Monk. Although he was 6 years younger than Dave, Richard was also active in making rules suggestions and  other contributions to the campaign. An entire section in Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign is dedicated to Richard's additions to the game. My own fan sourcebook for Blackmoor, The Eastern Marshes was in part a tribute to Richard Snider's section in the First Fantasy Campaign.

Game Designer and author

Together with Dave Arneson, he co-authored Adventures in Fantasy (Excalibre Games, 1978). In 1983, Richard created the game Powers & Perils, which he was incredibly supportive of throughout his life.  Later in life Richard still expressed an interest in publishing RPGs, though attempts to bring back Powers & Perils on a commercial basis were blocked by Wizards of the Coast. In  2007, Richard stated that he would be interested in bringing his creative ideas to the computer scene in "a computer mega-opus".

Richard was also a published Sci Fi author, having written a novel called The Leather Rose. He also wrote about 35 other unpublished novels.

Bibliography

Tabletop RPGs

• Arneson, Dave First Fantasy Campaign (Judges Guild, 1977) - Additional material by Richard Snider included.
• Arneson, Dave & Snider, Richard: Adventures in Fantasy (Excalibur Games, 1978)
• Asprin, Robert: Thieves World (Chaosium, 1981) - Additional material
• Snider, Richard: Powers & Perils RPG (Avalon Hill, 1983)
• Snider, Richard: Perilous Lands (Avalon Hill, 1984) - Powers & Perils Supplement
• Snider, Richard: Book of Tables (Avalon Hill, 1984) - Powers & Perils Supplement
• Snider, Richard: Tower of the Dead (Avalon Hill, 1984) - Powers & Perils Supplement

Strategy Games

• Snider, John, Snider, Richard etc: Star Empires (TSR, 1977)

Novels

• Snider, Richard: The Leather Rose

Thanks to Bob Meyer, Greg Svenson, Chirine ba'Kal, James Mishler and others for providing additional information. If you have more information about Richard L. Snider that you think should be included, please let me know.


More discussion of this article here.

-Havard

Eastern Marshes of Thonia Revealed!

A new region in the world of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor is being explored in detail for the very first time. The Empire of Thonia, also known as the Great Kingdom, consists of ten provinces. The Eastern Marshes is one of the more traditional of the Thonian Provinces.

Get your free fan-created PDF booklet today!

Also, read more about Thonia here.

-Havard

[Characters] Bishop Carr - First D&D Cleric

The first Cleric in the history of D&D was played by original Blackmoor player and former TSR Editor Mike Carr and the character was later known simply as Bishop Carr. Mike Carr was not the only player to have used this class. Another famous example is Richard Snider, when he played Brother Richard - the Flying Monk.  When I talked to Carr last year, he explained that:

"It's true that I did take part in the original Blackmoor campaign and did play the role of a priest, participating in a few dungeon or overland expeditions. [...] I also recall having the ability to cast one or two spells and having the ability to help heal minor wounds, but in retrospect it's obvious my character was low level and not particularly impressive. Since my primary interest was in historical games rather than fantasy games (which is still the case), I didn't play too often and didn't make any progress with that character. It's ironic that I knew both Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax fairly well and enjoyed their company from time to time, but never played much D & D with either of them."

Mike Mornard was another player in Arneson's campaign at this time. Mornard is also unique in the fact that he is the only player to have played in all three of Gary Gygax', Phil Barker's and Dave Arneson's original campaigns. Mornard recalls the origins of the Cleric class designed for Carr's character:

"Ahem. I was there. In CHAINMAIL there were wizards that functioned as artillery. Then there was Dave Arneson's first miniatures/roleplaying campaign. Some players were 'good guys' and some players were 'bad guys' and Dave was the referee. One of the 'bad guys' wanted to play a Vampire. He was extremely smart and capable, and as he got more and more experience he got tougher and tougher. This was the early 70s, so the model for 'vampire' was Christopher Lee in Hammer films. No deep folklore shit. Well, after a time, nobody could touch Sir Fang. Yes, that was his name."

The Vampire Lord, Sir Fang, that Mornard refers to here was actually David Fant's character, who used to be the Baron of Blackmoor. How Baron Fant was turned into a Vampire is a shrouded mystery. The Last Fantasy Campaign suggests that Ran may have been responsible for turning Blackmoor's Baron into an undead lord. My fellow Blackmoor scholar David Ross speculates that it must have happened in the year 998 when the heroes drew the forces of the Egg out of Blackmoor, reclaiming their city:

"Meanwhile, a strong fighter becomes the vampire Sir Fang. This is also the last mention of Fant as a ruling Baron of Blackmoor. Great Vampire Hunt in which Fant is “killed”, but later two dwarves free him and join his undead legion."(-Blackmoor Gazetteer)

Lord Fang was also recruited the Baron's ally, Sir Jenkins, Lord of Glendover, to the ranks of the undead. The appearance of a Vampire lord and an undead legion on the side of evil threatened the balance of the campaign. Mike Mornard recalls how the Cleric class was designed to reestablish this balanace:

"To fix the threatened end of the game they came up with a character that was, at first, a 'vampire hunter'. Peter Cushing in the same films. As the rough specs were drawn up, comments about the need for healing and for curing disease came up. Ta da, the "priest" was born. Changed later to 'cleric'. The bit about edged weapons was from Gary's reading the old stories about Archbishop Turpin, who wielded a mace because he didn't want to shed blood ("who lives by the sword dies by the sword")."

Grognaria also suggest Peter Cushing's role of Dr. Van Helsing as an inspiration for the Cleric class. Since Mike Carr was the first to play this class, it would make sense to assume that his character conformed to the ideas they all had of the class at the time.

Besides battling the Vampire Lord, Mike Carr recalls what was probably the most dramatic adventures of Bishop Carr. It featured one of Blackmoor's most dangerous monsters:

"One of my recollections is one rather disastrous encounter with a balrog where our party had to beat a hasty retreat because we couldn't defeat that particular monster."

Could this have been the battle recounted by Greg Svenson as the Great Svenny's First Dungeon Adventure? It would not be the only time the heroes of Blackmoor were faced with Demons.

Bishop Carr is described in a humorous way in the First Fantasy Campaign, a description which still makes me chuckle today. Dave Arneson's accounts of the Bishop suggests Arneson's fond memories of playing with Carr. While the character was still of very low level when Carr played in the campaign, Arneson promoted him to Bishop of Blackmoor. In DA1, Garamond Bolitho is the Bishop of Blackmoor. Garamond may have succeeded Bishop Carr since DA1 is set 30 years after the First Fantasy Campaign, or they may be one and the same character. David Ross points to both Clerics' friendliness towards the "pagan" elves as a possible indication that they may be the same, but also offers the years 1002-1005 as the period when Bolitho may have replaced Carr as the preceeding Bishop over Blackmoor.


In this series of character profiles, I have earlier described legendary Blackmoor heroes such as the Great Svenny, the Wizard of the Woods and villains like Moorkok the Slayer, Captain Krey and Stephen the Rock. 

Image Sources:
Cleric
Vampire




-Havard

The Most Enthusiastic Blackmoor Player

In the First Fantasy Campaign, Dave Arneson described Richard Snider as one of the most enthusiastic players of the original Blackmoor game.

Last November, I was sad to report of his passing. In my experience, a D&D campaign is never better than the players. The best games I have DMed, have been so enjoyable, as much thanks to the players as to the DM. Arneson recognized how lucky he was to have such great players. In the FFC, Arneson describes how Snider "evolved an entirely separate campaign and mythos" as well as developing more advanced rules for dragons.

Richard later went on to develop his own setting; the Perilous Lands, which he continued to work on long after the books for it had been out of print.

Above is a picure of Richard from the 1980s Origins Convention.

-Havard

Dave Arneson's Adventures in Fantasy (1979)

In 1979, Dave Arneson and Richard Snider created an RPG called Adventures in Fantasy. Two versions of the game were published that year, one by Excalibur Games and the second by Arneson's company, Adventure Games. The game consists of three books -- Book of Adventure, Book of Faerry and Magic, and Book of Creatures and Treasure. A good review of the game appeared on Grognardia earlier this year. DH Bogg's "arnesonian" RPG , Dragons at Dawn, is said to have drawn heavily on Adventures in Fantasy.

Jeff Berry worked for Dave Arneson in 1979 and could reveal the following about the life at Adventure Games (AGI):

I was working for Dave at the time at Adventure Games, as the chief 'Tekumel Boat Person' (as he described us); the staff at AGI was made up of Dave's friends from the First Minnesota ACW reenactment group, and none of them were fantasy gamers of any type. Ken Fletcher and I were the only people there with any fantasy gaming experience; Richard was a free-lance author, and rarely in the shop.

Why didn't the game do better? At this time, D&D was still a young game and it would seem that the market was hungry for fantasy RPGs. If RuneQuest could coexist with D&D, why not AiF? Was it simply not good enough? Jeff Berry has the following explanation:

The problem with AiF wasn't that is was a bad game or anything, it was simply one of no marketing. Dave had bought it back from Excalibur with the money that the first of his settlements with TSR, and like many other of the AGI product line was more or less just there because Dave or one of his friends had done the game. There was no real 'in-house' support for this game like there was for, say, "Compleat Brigadier", and it has to be said that there wasn't much support for fantasy gaming of any kind in house. AGI's Tekumel line existed because of Dave's personal friendship with Phil, and my presence at AGI was a direct consequence of that. It always amazed the AGI staff that we 'boat people', so-called because we lived on pallets in AGI's basement under tarps (it was a very wet basement!) could sell our rather recondite products and the main AGI line never seemed to sell at all; I kept pointing out that one needed to run games at conventions and advertise the heck out of a game, otherwise it'd never sell to anyone.

Recently there has been speculations to whether it would be possible to get ahold of the lisence to the game so it could be published again. Unfortunately, Rafael just shared the following on Dragonsfoot today:

The news back then were, as the admin staff over at the CI discussed in various threads, that with Dave Arneson's death, apparently all of his rpg-related IP reverted to WotC. INCLUDING AiF. - This was apparently part of the agreement that allowed the licensing of the BM d20 line through several companies associated with Arneson. A dead end, it seems.Though IANAL, as to the Comeback Inn crew, things so far look far more like we will go on an produce our own setting some day instead of continuing DA's work.

So, the chances of seeing Adventures in Fantasy back in print seem very low indeed. Thankfully there are other things happening in the Old School community and many out there who are interested in honoring Dave's legacy in any way they can.









-Havard

The Original Blackmoor Players

I will not claim to be a great DM. Some of my campaigns have been hugely successful. Others have been total disasters. When I do succeed, I suppose I can take some credit for the result, but largely it is also due to the players. Roleplaying is a collaborative effort and a campaign is developed by the group rather than a single individual.

Dave Arneson recognized this. As early as in the First Fantasy campaign, he credits players such as Greg Svenson and Richard Snider as having had a heavy impact on Blackmoor. Others are also mentioned, scattered around in the text. As Dave's 30 year spanning campaign developed, he allowed other players to have their input on how the campaign evolved. When ZGG published the D20 Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Sourcebook in 2003, Dave also credited the players he considered the Original Blackmoor Players.

Blackmoor fan, Finarvyn, made a compilation of the players known to have taken part in Arneson's campaign over the years, confirmed by Dave Arneson himself:

Dave Arneson – Referee
Malia Arneson-Weinhagen– Thief/Monk
Jim Abler – Mage (Evil)
Jim Barber – Elf
Dave Belfry – Dwarf
Scott Belfry
Blue Petal – Pre-Blackmoor
Mike Carr – Cleric; Bishop Carr; Mi-Kar
Larry Bond
Steve Dabenspeck
Dave Fant – Baron of Blackmoor
Kletcher Fletcher – Ranger
Giovanna Frengi – Dwarven Battle maid
Frederick Paul Funk III – Orc; Funk I King of All Orcs
Pete Gaylord – Mage; Wizard of the Woods
Phil Grant – Elf
Bill Heaton – The Blue Rider; Paladin
Harry Holman – Dwarf
Duane Jenkins – Vampire-Knight; Sir Jenkins (Dave says: “He wanted to be a vampire, but I kept frustrating him. Hee, hee.”)
Rick (Mel) Johnson – Mello; Halfling
Tony Kellen
Tim Kirkpatrick – Halfling
Kurt Krey – First ever Evil Wizard PC of Blackmoor
Jim Lafferie – Mage
Steve Lortz – Lortz the Dwarf
Ross Maker – Dwarf
David Megarry
Bob Meyer – Robert the Bald
Mike Mornard (Dave says: “Mike was actually in my campaign, Gary’s campaign, and Phil Barker’s.”)
Chuck Munson
Dale Nelson
Dan Nicholson– Merchant
Martin Noetzel – Elf
Walter Oberstar – Oberstar the Dwarf
Cliff Olilla – Pre-Blackmoor
John Snider – Fighter
Richard Snider – Cleric; The Flying Monk
* Chuck Soukup: (Dave says: “Nah, just one of the first bad guys.”)
* John Soukup – Balrog (Dave says: “Nah, just one of the first bad guys.”)
Greg Svenson – Great Svenny; Swenny I, King of All Good; Zvenzon (Dave says: “King?? Certainly the leader of all the good guys.”)
Dave Wesley – Half-elf


* The Soukup brothers were added again as per Svenny's comments.


These names were removed from the original list, based on Dave Arneson’s comments!
Mike Belfry (Dave says: “Mike?”)
Mike Norman (Dave says: “Mike never played, although he was in the group.”)
Greg Scott -- Egg of Coot (Dave says: “No, he never played, just a local character I used.”)


Internet claim (can someone confirm this?)
Joe Vail – Dwarves Frick & Frack; vampire-dwarf slaves the "Fang-ettes"
Note: This name was NOT on Dave’s list, either.


Edit: See this updated list of Original Blackmoor Players at the Comeback Inn Forum (Registry required)

image source: http://angryjoeshow.com/2009/03/basically-vin-diesel-kicks-ass/



-Havard

A New Year!

Since we are now in 2010, I would like to take a look at the past year and the things that have happened concerning Blackmoor. 2009 has been a year of Great Losses, a year of Hopes and Disappoinments an a year where we need to ask wherein the future of Blackmoor lies.

GREAT LOSSES
Overshadowing everything else, 2009 will no doubt be remembered for the passing of Dave Arneson on the 7th of April after two years of battling cancer. On the 17th of November, Richard Snider also passed away. More than anything else happening last year, the loss of those two gentlemen will be remembered.


HOPES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS

On the publishers' side of  things, 2009 saw the release of Blackmoor: The First Campaign in June, bringing Blackmoor over to the 4th Edition of D&D. This was a pleasant surprise as things had been so quiet around Blackmoor that many of us had given up hope that we'd ever see more Blackmoor Products. Blackmoor had now been placed among very few 3rd party settings to be supported for the new edition.

Blackmoor fans were further excited to learn of the planned launch of the Age of the Wolf setting which was to be released over the months of the fall of 2009. Unfortunately, those hopes were stiffled as it was announced that the Blackmoor lisence from WotC was coming to an end, with the chance of seeing any future Blackmoor products looking slim.

THE FANS MARCH ON

Not all that happened in 2009 was gloomy though. This year also saw the end of the Grim Winter Campaign. Grim Winter is Rafael San Miguel's long lasting Play by Post Campaign, one of the biggest gaming events in recent Blackmoor history. We are pleased to learn that a new chapter in this saga, the Promised Land will begin later this year.

2009 was also the second year of the Piazza. This D&D World forum is staying vibrant and steadily attracting more followers, with Blackmoor having its own top level subforum on those boards. Finarvyn's OD&D Forum has also been a great resource for learning about Blackmoor's early days and Arneson's way of gaming.

Finally, 2009 was the year when this Blog was born. Getting into the blogosphere has been a very interesting experience for me. Along with my website at blackmoor.mystara.us, it has been a good way for me to organize and collect my thoughts on Blackmoor. I have been humbled to see it attract so many great followers, many of whom help out with very interesting comments and feedback. Several people have contacted me, expressing a desire to see more things happen with Blackmoor even if we can no longer get official material. More than anything else, this blog has convinced me that the Blackmoor fans are a force to be reconned with. I belive that Blackmoor is now in the hands of its fans. 2010 will be the year when those of us who love the setting will have to step up and make sure that Arneson's creation does not disappear into oblivion, but instead lives on! 

I wish you a Happy New Year!






-Havard

Obituary: Richard Leonard Snider

Greg Svenson was kind enough to provide me with Richard Snider's Obituary:

Richard Leonard Snider
Mr. Snider, age 56, of Mint Hill, died Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at his home. Born August 29, 1953 in Albuquerque, NM, he was a son of the late Leonard Alfred Snider and Elizabeth Moody Snider. Mr. Snider was a self-employed landscaper.

A prayer service will be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday, November 21, 2009 at St. Luke's Catholic Church.

Survivors include his wife of six years, Najwa; and eight siblings, Paul, John, Clare, Richard, Kathy, Mary, Tom and George. In addition to his parents, Mr. Snider was preceded in death by a brother, Peter.

You may join in celebrating the life of Richard Leonard Snider by visiting his memorial at www.MeM.com. Through the personal Guest Book on this site, you are invited to share your thoughts and memories with his family. Arrangements by McEwen Funeral Service - Mint Hill Chapel, 7428 Matthews-Mint Hill Road, Charlotte, NC 28227 (704-545-4864).

Published in Charlotte Observer on November 20, 2009








Havard

Richard L. Snider Has Passed Away

I am sad to have learned that Richard L. Snider passed away earlier this week, on the 17th of November. Cancer is believed to be the cause of death. Richard and his brother John were members of the Midwest Military Simulation Association in the 1970s and the Sniders became two of the original Blackmoor players. In Dave Arneson's campaign, Richard played the Cleric who became known as the Flying Monk. Richard was also active in making other contributions to the campaign and an entire section in Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign is dedicated to Richard's additions to the game.

Richard also ventured into game design himself. Together with Dave Arneson, he co-authored Adventures in Fantasy(1978). In 1983, Richard created the game Powers & Perils.Richard was also a Sci-Fi author, having written about 35 novels, although only one, The Leather Rose, was actually published.

In recent years, Richard still expressed an interest in publishing RPGs, though attempts to bring back Powers & Perils on a commercial basis were blocked by Wizards of the Coast. In a post on the Wayfarer's Inn in 2007, Richard stated that he would be interested in bringing his creative ideas to the computer scene in "a computer mega-opus".


May He Rest in Peace.



Edit 2019: An updated article on Richard Snider can be found here.



Havard
(Thanks to Greg Svenson and Bob Meyer for providing additional information for this entry)